We use mustard as fertilizer

Mustard is widely known by both the gardener and the chefs. As an additional spice, it is added to many dishes, giving them additional notes of an unusual bitter salty aftertaste.

But few people know that mustard can serve as an excellent fertilizer for the soil, has the ability to moisturize and nourish the earth at the same time.

There are several types of mustard plants. For a garden plot, according to experts, the most useful is white mustard as a fertilizer. This herb is capable of removing hard-to-dissolve phosphates from the ground. Also, the roots and leaves of the mustard crop contain nitrogen, which makes the culture a good fertilizer for many plants grown in the garden.

Mustard is considered by many to be a very thermophilic crop and that growing mustard in the northern regions is difficult. However, this is not true. In fact, mustard is not at all picky about the climatic features of the regions, and if you do not collect it in time, it can generally become an almost unkillable weed. Due to its unpretentiousness, mustard is grown all over the world. It can be seen in America and Japan.

Why is mustard so useful as a fertilizer in the garden?

Mustard planted in soil provides the soil and other plants in the beds with useful trace elements such as phosphorus and nitrogen. These elements, in turn, are able to feed the grown crops even at the initial stage of their growth.

In addition, mustard plants as fertilizers in the garden are able to effectively fight pests such as slugs and wirewormwhile clearing the ground from phytophthora.

In addition, the use of mustard as a fertilizer in the garden can prevent the growth of weeds, since it grows so quickly that it does not give the weeds the opportunity to germinate.
Due to its ability to retain nitrogen, mustard significantly reduces the risk of leaching of garden soils.

In autumn, with the onset of the first frost, mustard can be used as mulch, covering the beds and crops with it; it will be able to protect the earth from severe freezing, which means it will retain a lot of moisture and all the useful properties in it.

Also, mustard as a fertilizer can coexist with a very large number of different crops, both with potatoes and with fruit trees, while also stimulating the development and growth of plants and preventing pests.

With all the useful properties of mustard, it is not at all difficult for him to grow. The culture can adapt to almost any climatic conditions and soils. After planting, you can safely leave it alone for several weeks, since it will sprout anyway.

Mustard seeds are small in size, but they look like tiny beans in shape, making them very convenient to plant. It is better not to sow the seeds, but to plant in a row method, leaving the distance between the seeds at fifteen to twenty centimeters, the same distance must be left between the rows. The fact is that with good growth, mustard forms rather lush bushes, for which, of course, free space is needed.

Planting seeds very deeply in the hope that this will somehow improve the condition of the mustard roots, there is no need. On the contrary, it can significantly slow down the growth of the plant and weaken the mustard stems themselves.

The first planting of mustard as fertilizer can be done in the middle of spring, as soon as the frosty nights stop and the temperature warms up to plus ten degrees Celsius.If you plant mustard in April, you can even have time to prepare the soil saturated with the beneficial properties of mustard for planting vegetable crops.

Despite the fact that mustard as a fertilizer for many plants is a great healthy neighbor, there are exceptions. So, for example, growing radishes or other cruciferous crops in the beds after mustard is not a good idea, since they can become infected with the same diseases and parasites.

If the decision is made to plant mustard in the autumn months, then it is better to do it in areas where potatoes and other cereals have been recently dug up. The frost resistance of mustard makes it possible for some summer residents to plant a plant before the onset of winter, with the aim of the spring germination of mustard. It is really possible to do this, although it is worth adhering to certain rules for planting seeds.

The seeds must be placed in a well-loosened soil in advance, already cold. In this case, the pits for planting mustard as fertilizer must be made deeper, since melt water can erode the upper layers of the soil (on which mustard seeds will be located if the plant is incorrectly planted).